Whole Food Essays

The documentary Food Inc. is a great example of commercial farming. The purpose of commercial farming is to mass produce food and animals, to feed the community. The concept of commercial farming could also go along food security. The community needs to make sure that there is enough food to feed the growing population at all times. The problem right now isn’t that there isn’t enough food, but rather that there is too much food. The Tyson company produces all kinds of meat to feed people around the country, and when doing so they tend to overproduce. With this overproduction, we are left with expired animals that cannot be produced into food for consumption, and in turn, provide extra parts that aren’t useful or helpful.

Prices in stores are very competitive and people typically go for “name brand” foods. Although, prices are competitive they still vary by brand name, size, and quantity. Organic foods are typically more expensive because of more labor required to grow the produce, organic certification cost, etc. “Many smalls farms can be certified for approximately $750 the first year and between $375 and $575 in later years” (CCOF 1). Certification costs are expensive, thus making the retail price of the produce higher. Many factors are contributed when growing organic foods. In stores consumers will typically pay around $2.82 for a pound of non-organic tomatoes compared to $4.05 per pound for organic tomatoes. In the case of non-organic red peppers they generally go for $2.76 per pound

Whole Foods Market started off as being Safer Way natural grocery store in 1978. However they were not

From the now popular recyclable cloth grocery bags, to the organic garden at the White House, food, and the food industry is changing. The popularity of organic and whole foods is on the rise. Processed foods are increasingly advertising that they are additive and preservative free, and all sorts of products now offer a “gluten-free” variety. The popularity of what is now being called the sustainable food movement, leads many to wonder why are some people willing to pay more, sometimes double, for organic produce, meat, eggs, and milk. Will this prove to be just another trendy American fad, or are there real health benefits from eating organic and whole foods? While the organic market only represents approximately 3% of the total food

As a part of the American Marketing Service (AMS), the NOP was founded in 1939 and strives to develop “national standards for organically-produced agricultural products” (“National”). Their mission is to ensure goods with an organic seal are controlled and distributed as uniformly as possible, and they take every complaint with a heavy hand to keep irregularities to a minimum. In 1990, the USDA was instructed to “establish uniform national standards for organic food and farming, fixing the definition of a word that had always meant different things to different people” (Pollan 154). Since then the term organic has been manipulated and distorted by large companies in order to push their products to as big a market as possible, leaving consumers dazed and confused about the actual standards of the foods they were purchasing. Often times, the true meaning of the extravagant or misleading words on the packaging is hard to translate for the average consumer-organic being no different. The seal that dawns certified organic products provides no insight into the qualifications needed in order to receive that stamp nor is the USDA very forthcoming about the actual meaning of the word organic. Any retailer can slap an “organic” label on their product so long as “at least 95% of the farm-grown ingredients are organic and you sell direct to customers in

If you were to ask people if they enjoy going to work on Monday, I am sure most of them would give you a funny look, and say “No”. Americans dislike of their jobs is very evident. To see the magnitude of this just look on social media. On Fridays, there are vast amounts of thank god it’s Friday (TGIF) memes indicating how happy they are that they are done with work for the week. Many American simply do not enjoy working. However, a select few actually do. They enjoy their jobs and their co-workers. Sure, they may be far and few between, but if you ask one of the 54,000 Whole Foods Markets employees you are sure to get a “Yes”. If fact, not only does Whole Foods Markets employees enjoy their work, their company is one of the top 100 companies to work for according to Fortune.com. What is so special about Whole Foods Market that their employees actually enjoy their jobs, and what is makes them different from all the other companies out there?

Many women find that between work, family, and their social life it can be quite difficult to develop an eating plan to suit your family's needs. Most people go to the grocery store with a list of foods that their household is currently out of. The best way to go shopping is to develop a menu each week, or every two weeks, in order to get a good look at what you need. In order to begin shopping for whole foods and planning a whole foods menu each week there are three things you should take into account: which foods your family likes now, which foods you can easily switch over or introduce into your household, and how many meals you actually plan on making over the course of a week.

Pollan states, “the word ‘organic’ has been stretched and twisted to admit the very sort of industrial practices from which it once offered a critique and an alternative” (Pollan 157). This is because there are certain factors that influence the regulations related to organic farming. All of these factors lead to one root cause for certain regulation, money. Big organic companies consistently ask themselves, how we can make the most money. They use certain words on labels as previously mentioned to capture the eyes of their consumers. This growing industry needs the USDA to approve certain regulations in order to give the consumer what they want and make the most money possible. Founder of Cascadian farm, Gene Kahn was a pioneer for the big organic industry and serves on the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board in 1992. As a result, the final standards approved by the USDA permitted certain additives and synthetics from ascorbic acid to xanthan gum that could be used in organic foods and still be labelled as organic food. With this came the invention of the organic TV dinner, a fast made food for when Americans don’t feel like cooking, an instant seller. The USDA needs to keep big organic companies such as Earthbound Farm and Grimmway Farms happy (by allowing certain additives), in order to keep them quiet. Big corporations make the laws not the

With 270 retail locations each ranging from 45,000 to 75,000 square feet, nine distribution centers, five commissaries, nine regional bake-houses and subsidiaries whose operations encompass coffee production, seafood processing and produce field inspections, Whole Foods has substantial capital investment in plant and property totaling over $1.6 billion (Whole Foods 1, n.d., p. 1) and (MSN Money, 2008, p. 3). Whole Foods also boast a sophisticated distribution system with retail outlets targeting affluent urban areas with higher income and education demographics.

This raises a marketing problem, though, because it has been simpler to make the environmental argument for organic nourishment than the health argument. The environmental advantages of the organic academic procedure should not be undervalued, but the industrialization of organic comes at a cost. The most clear cost is consolidation. To a certain extent as a consequence, the cost incentive for organic harvests is getting smaller. Pesticide reminders are ubiquitous in the American food stock. The Food and Drug Administration locates them in about 35 percent of the food it

In our world today many people want to know what is going into their body. Many individuals will choose organic food over conventional food because of the way it is produced. The only issue with organic food, in the United States, is that it does not have enough organic farmers to produce the same volume that conventional farmers do. If farmers transform to organic farming, this can stabilize the need for organic food in the United States; doing this can aid the business of local and whole food shops.

One primary reference is the US National Organic Standards set by the National Food Production Act. Under the Act, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) manages the National Organic Program (NOP) that defines organic standards and processes. For example, if a product contains at least 95% organic ingredients it may be labelled as organic. In addition, organic products are subject to stringent crop production and livestock management standards, such as implementing buffer zones and organic animal feed.

Over the past few years, the food industry has seen a significant increase in the demand for organically grown foods over the alternative choice of conventionally grown food. In 1990, the revenue spent on organic foods was about $1 billion, in 2009 sales soared to $26.6 billion, and in 2014, sales reached the highest ever at $34.7 billion .The cause of the increase in demand can be attributed to the common belief that organic foods are healthier for human consumption, and healthier for our environment (USDA). There’s an overwhelming concern about how our food is produced, and how it impacts our environment and our economy.

Humans initially began farming organically when European farmers noticed a decrease in soil quality and crop health due to the use of chemical fertilizers (“Pesticides in Organic…” 1). This drop in soil quality left the farmers no other choice but to cease the use of chemical fertilizers and begin implementing less harmful supplements in order to improve crop quality (“An Oral History…”). This less invasive method of farming, otherwise known as organic farming, takes into account “the medium and long-term effect of agricultural interventions” (“What Are the Environmental…”) to strengthen environmental sustainability. Alternatively, industrial farming addresses problems as they arise, whereas organic farming ensures a less destructive way of living by taking preventative measures associated with the environment and health. As more consumers switch to the organic lifestyle, this proactive trend is estimated to grow at an annual rate of 14% until 2018 within the United States (Daniells). The estimated growth rate of the organic food market is significantly higher than the growth rate of the conventional food market (Daniells), thereby making “organic sales account for over 4 percent of total U.S. food sales” (USDA-ERS). According to the USDA, this organic trend has implemented organic products in roughly three out of four conventional grocery stores in the United States (“USDA-ERS”). While conventional farmers are not losing all of their buyers, many consumers have appealed to

Whole Foods Market, Inc. is the largest chain of natural foods supermarkets operating in the United States. Whole Foods has six core values that drive its company and they include; selling the highest quality natural and organic products, satisfying and delighting customers, supporting their Team Members (Whole Food Employees) happiness and growth, creating wealth through profits and growth, caring about the communities and our environment, creating win-win partnerships with their supplies and promoting the health of their stakeholders through healthy eating education. The company operates stores in 26 states of the US and in the District of Columbia (Whole Foods Market, 2010). Whole